Wednesday 11 November 2009 19.05 EST
First published on Wednesday 11 November 2009 19.05 EST

For the last few weeks, the traditional checklist before a live television broadcast (make-up, sound levels, mobiles off) has included: button-hole. As 11 November nears, BBC presenters and reporters are required – and guests firmly encouraged – to pin on a poppy.

Splashes of red on the lapel seem to have been more pronounced than ever this year. The old convention that they were sported from 1 November seems to have been abandoned, with BBC anchors wearing the favours from mid-October. Guests on political panel programmes often seemed to be engaged in competitive remembrance, wearing ever more huge and elborate blooms, including big, floppy cloth poppies.

My own private choice is to try to wear a poppy for a week in November; but broadcasting's galloping memorial inflation risks reducing a touching gesture of historical respect to just another nervous editorial guideline. An MP appearing on The Politics Show was heard to complain: "Next year, we'll be wearing them in August."

This raises a practical problem: because the rule is restricted to live shows, hosts of pre-recorded documentaries and interviews can appear, unfairly, to be historically insensitive. Next year, will presenters recording in the summer wear a poppy just in case their shows go out in October or November? Will radio hosts have to rub their suits against the microphone to show they're respectfully attired?

Another obvious objection is that, under editorial rules, presenters would not be allowed to wear the badge or symbol of any other charity. The usual response to this is that the poppy is a non-political image, voters for all parties having died in war. But, when the nation is engaged in controversial wars abroad, this exoneration wobbles.

Given that the troops killed recently in Iraq and Afghanistan were added to the roll-call at this week's memorials, it looks incongruous for correspondents covering those conflicts to be dressed for the Cenotaph. Television needs to rethink its poppy-lism.